Thankfully, things are no different this year, with the major terrestrial channels once again pulling out all the stops to air both classic staples from yesteryear and more recent movies, with a hugely varied selection of family films, romcoms, action flicks, musicals and much more making it into the schedules.As ever, this year sees broadcasts for some of the best films from the last couple of years – including Oppenheimer and Challengers – while there's also plenty to enjoy if you're more into old school favourites, like Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and classic musical West Side Story.We’ve put together a list of some of the best movies to watch for free on TV this Christmas and New Year, separated by genre – take a look below to find out what’s on at no cost.
Best free family films on TV this Christmas and New YearAnimated comedy adventure featuring the voices of Jack Dylan Grazer and Zach Galifianakis. Young misfit Barney is given the must-have interactive robot toy for his birthday, and names it Ron. But Ron appears to have a social software glitch, and when news of the defect goes viral, the CEO of the company that built Ron sees it as a potential PR threat that needs eliminating.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Sunday 21st December, ITV2, 4:20pm
Live-action adaptation of Disney's animated fairy tale, starring Halle Bailey and Jonah Hauer-King. Ariel the mermaid is captivated by the world above the waves, much to the consternation of her father, King Triton. After saving a prince from drowning during a storm, Ariel makes a pact with a sea witch to become human for three days to win the prince's heart - little realising she will lose her beautiful voice as well as her fishy tail.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Tuesday 23rd December, Comedy Central, 11am
Animated comedy featuring the voice of Steve Carell. Behind the seemingly tranquil façade of small-town America, super-criminal Gru plots his biggest heist yet: to steal the Moon. But an encounter with orphan sisters Margo, Edith and Agnes proves that even the most dastardly villain has a soft centre.
Hook
Tuesday 23rd December, Channel 5, 4:10pm (repeated Monday 29th December, Channel 5, 10:15am)
ET: the Extra-Terrestrial
Christmas Eve, ITV1, 1:35pm (repeated Tuesday 30th December, ITV1, 2:40pm)
Animated superhero sequel featuring the voices of Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld. Teenager Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man, is struggling with his studies, his parents and a vengeful new supervillain, the Spot. When his old friend Gwen Stacy, aka Spider-Woman, returns to his universe in pursuit of the Spot, Miles is drawn into a world-hopping multiversal adventure that leads to a shocking discovery.
Home Alone
Christmas Eve, Channel 4, 5:30pm
Animated Wallace & Gromit comedy featuring the voice of Ben Whitehead. The dynamic duo get into a spot of bother when old nemesis Feathers McGraw hacks into Wallace's latest invention and sets out on a crime spree. With Wallace out of the frame, it's up to Gromit to save the day. Can he outwit the diabolical penguin once again?
Frozen II
Christmas Day, Channel 4, 3:10pm
Animated comedy sequel featuring the voice of Antonio Banderas. With eight of his nine lives used up, it looks like the swashbuckling high life is over for Puss unless he can reach a magical land where wishes come true. An epic quest begins, but there are others with their eyes on the prize, too.
Paddington 2
Boxing Day, BBC One, 5:20pm
Animated comedy adventure featuring the voice of Jay Baruchel. Hiccup, Toothless and his friends have transformed Berk into a dragon utopia. But the island becomes overcrowded and Hiccup decides to find the fabled dragon haven known as the 'Hidden World'. Meanwhile, his fellow Vikings fight back against a ruthless dragonslayer who plans to trap Toothless.
Chicken Run
Sunday 28th December, BBC One, 10:15am
Sci-fi comedy adventure starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd. High-school student Marty McFly thinks his future is ahead of him, until the day he tries out Dr Emmett Brown's modified DeLorean car and travels back in time. Stranded in 1955, Marty meets his parents and unwittingly changes their destiny. Can he put things right and return to the future before it's too late?
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
New Year's Eve, BBC One, 9:35am
Animated fantasy adventure featuring the voices of Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina. Chieftain's daughter Raya has been trained to guard five precious gems that protect her community. When she is betrayed by a rival, Raya's people are turned to stone by evil spirits. Alone and desperate, Raya embarks on a quest to find Sisu, the last surviving dragon, who may have the power to undo the spell and reunite Raya with her friends and family.
Mrs Doubtfire
Friday 2nd January, Channel 4, 2:20pm
Best free action films on TV this Christmas and New YearAction thriller starring Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman. New York cop John McClane gets caught up in a terrorist plot after arriving in Los Angeles to spend Christmas with his estranged wife Holly and his two children. When Holly is taken hostage in the offices of the Japanese corporation she works for, McClane launches a daring rescue attempt.
Die Another Day
Saturday 20th December, ITV1, 6:35pm (repeated Boxing Day, ITV1, 10:15pm)
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Sunday 21st December, BBC One, 2:40pm
Action thriller starring Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen and Bill Skarsgård. After recovering from being shot by his mentor, ace assassin John Wick is out for revenge against the High Table. However, the Marquis is now in control of the organisation and sends a horde of killers after the beleaguered hitman - which will have bloody consequences for friend and foe alike.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Christmas Day, ITV1, 3:10pm (repeated Monday 29th December, ITV1, 10:45pm)
Sci-fi action adventure starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Ben Affleck. When a giant asteroid threatens Earth's survival, Nasa hatches a plan to drill into the rock and plant a nuclear device that will blow it apart. With time running out, the task of saving mankind falls to ace oil man Harry S Stamper and his band of unlikely heroes.
The Great Escape
Boxing Day, BBC Two, 4:45pm (repeated New Year's Day, BBC Four, 9pm)
Action comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. Harry Tasker is a secret agent posing as a computer salesman, and his bored wife Helen has no idea about his double life. When Tasker suspects Helen of having an affair, he triggers a chain of events that plunges her into his dangerous world of espionage.
Top Gun
Sunday 28th December, ITV1, 9:30pm
John Woo's action thriller, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. Terrorist Castor Troy is apprehended after an FBI operation, but in his coma-ridden state is unable to divulge the whereabouts of a bomb that is primed to blow up Los Angeles. With the clock ticking, Detective Sean Archer undertakes a face-transplant operation in order to impersonate Troy and locate the device. But things take a turn for the worse when Troy regains consciousness, steals Archer's face and assumes the lawman's identity.
Mission: Impossible
New Year's Eve, BBC One, 8:30pm
Best free romcoms on TV this Christmas and New YearFestive romantic comedy starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis. Abby and Harper have been happily dating for a year. With Christmas approaching, Abby plans to propose to Harper in front of her family - but her romantic intentions are thwarted when Abby discovers that Harper's conservative parents have no idea she is in a relationship with a woman.
Love Actually
Christmas Eve, ITV 1, 9:10pm
Screwball comedy starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal. When four identical suitcases get mixed up in a San Francisco hotel, it produces a series of crazy events which revolve around a zany girl and a shy music professor and his fiancée.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Boxing Day, BBC One, 10:15pm
Billy Wilder's comedy, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell, Evelyn Keyes and Oscar Homolka. A bored publisher revels in his new-found freedom after his wife and son go away to the country. When a beautiful but naive actress moves in upstairs, he is tempted to turn his fantasies of an affair with her into reality. But even in his dreams, his conscience has a way of tripping him up.
There's Something About Mary
Saturday 27th December, Channel 5, 10:30pm
Oscar-winning romantic comedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes. Will Shakespeare's career is in crisis: his money is running out and he's suffering from writer's block. But when he meets beautiful aristocrat Viola De Lesseps, his life - and the world of English literature - is destined to change forever.
Clueless
Monday 29th December, BBC One, 11pm
Classic screwball comedy starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. Working the cruise liners, beautiful trickster Jean Harrington believes that the highly eligible Charles Pike is there for the taking, if she plays her cards right.
Sabrina
New Year's Day, Sky Arts, 7pm (repeated Friday 2nd January, Sky Arts, 3:45pm)
Best free musicals on TV this Christmas and New YearMusical comedy starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra. Time is short if playboy composer CK Dexter-Haven is to reclaim his beautiful ex-wife Tracy Lord before she marries another, especially with cynical reporter Mike Connor caught up in the romantic complications.
Matilda
Christmas Day, BBC One, 1pm
White Christmas
Christmas Day, BBC Two, 1pm
Musical based on the hit stage show, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Unexpectedly reunited with summer love Danny at her new high school, Sandy Olsson can't believe how different he is. Can the new Danny Zuko, the leather-clad, tough-talking leader of the T-birds, really be the boy she met down at the beach? Perhaps Frenchy and Rizzo, both members of the super-cool Pink Ladies gang, can help her develop some street cred to win back his heart.
West Side Story
New Year's Eve, BBC Two, 1:10pm
Musical fantasy starring Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer. Widowed with two children and in dire financial straits, Michael Banks enlists his sister, Jane, to help find a crucial document that will save the family home from repossession. Luckily, some much-needed support drops into Cherry Tree Lane in the form of the siblings' half-forgotten childhood nanny, Mary Poppins.
Best of the rest on TV this Christmas and New Year
Sense and Sensibility
Saturday 20th December, BBC Two, 2:50pm
Revenge drama starring Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone and Danny Huston. The Australian outback in the 1880s: when British lawmen led by Captain Stanley capture outlaw Charlie Burns after an outrageous murder, they force him to agree to kill his renegade older brother so that the life of his younger brother will be spared.
Oppenheimer
Sunday 21st December, BBC Two, 9pm
Frank Capra's classic fantasy drama, starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. George Bailey is a small-town businessman who believes he has been a failure. Contemplating suicide, George meets his guardian angel and discovers what life in his home town of Bedford Falls would have been like had he never lived.
Jurassic Park
Sunday 21st December, ITV1, 3:15pm
David Lean's epic romantic drama, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. Doctor and poet Yuri Zhivago is brought up in the family of Alexander Gromeko, whose daughter, Tonya, he marries. But his true love is the beautiful Lara, the mistress of a political opportunist. With the outbreak of the Great War, and with Moscow transformed by the Revolution, their romance is disrupted by the social upheaval surrounding them.
Challengers
View Green Video on the source websiteMonday 22nd December, BBC One, 10:40pm
Horror comedy starring Michael Keaton, Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin. After Barbara and Adam Maitland are killed in a car crash, they find themselves trapped as ghosts in their beautiful home. When their peace is shattered by the arrival of a disagreeable yuppie family, the Maitlands enlist the help of a spiritual 'bio-exorcist' known as Betelgeuse.
Spartacus
Tuesday 23rd December, BBC Two, 3pm
Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning drama starring Dev Patel and Freida Pinto. Teenager Jamal Malik is one question away from winning the top prize on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? when the police intervene and accuse him of cheating. Under brutal interrogation, Jamal recounts the story of his life in the slums of Mumbai and how fate has brought him to this place and time.
Indecent Proposal
Christmas Eve, BBC Two, 10:30pm
Keir Dullea stars in Stanley Kubrick's ground-breaking science-fiction epic, which depicts the evolution of man - from primitive apes to modern times - through the medium of space travel.
Blue Velvet
Boxing Day, BBC Two, 12:55am
Classic film noir, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G Robinson. Insurance salesman Walter Neff meets Phyllis Dietrichson, the wife of one of his clients, and is instantly drawn to her. It isn't long before she's pulled Neff into a shocking plot to murder her husband, claim his life cover and live happily ever after - but Neff's boss soon smells a rat.
Elvis
Saturday 27th December, BBC One, 7:45pm
Western directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, and also featuring Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris. Following the death of his wife from smallpox and the failure of his farm, former gunfighter William Munny is tempted back to his old ways by the bounty offered for killing the cowboys who badly scarred a prostitute.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Sunday 28th December, Film4, 9pm
Classic horror starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee. When a policeman receives an anonymous letter suggesting that a girl has mysteriously disappeared from a small island community, he sets out to investigate. On his arrival, the villagers deny any knowledge of the girl, and he soon discovers that life on the island is not all that it seems.
Dial M for Murder
Tuesday 30th December, BBC Two, 2:30pm
Classic thriller starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Confined to a wheelchair following an accident, magazine photographer Jeff Jeffries passes the time by observing the behaviour of his neighbours. One in particular catches his attention: Thorwald, a salesman he sees leaving the flat with a suitcase, and whose invalid wife has seemingly disappeared. Convinced something terrible has happened to Mrs Thorwald, Jeff and his girlfriend Lisa decide to investigate, putting themselves in deadly danger.
The Full Monty
New Year's Eve, BBC Two, 10pm
Classic period epic starring Charlton Heston. Wealthy prince Judah Ben-Hur sets himself up against the tyranny of his Roman masters at the time of Christ, and is condemned to almost certain death as a galley slave by his childhood friend Messala. But the two men are fated to meet again.
LA Confidential
Friday 2nd January, Film 4, 9pm
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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